Alan Joyce to leave Qantas immediately

I often wonder if Board Members of large Companies can really
put in the effort required to truly understand the intricacies of the
business they are supposedly directing or do they in fact rubber
stamp decisions made by the working management team.
 
TiredOldFlyer said:
I often wonder if Board Members of large Companies can really
put in the effort required to truly understand the intricacies of the
business they are supposedly directing or do they in fact rubber
stamp decisions made by the working management team.
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Very interesting issue. Its been written by a number of commentators that Alan Joyce 'captured' his Board - they they were in his thrall and did basically wave a rubber stamp around. You can see how this might happen, by Joyce's public appearances over the years; only very recently has the reality been separated from his spin and oily words. Directors are largely confined to the Board papers they are presented with, and the agenda of a meeting. They can caucus separately of course, but the Chair would be involved pretty soon in any of that (see below).

Some board operate with little or no 'industry' experience on them, outside the CEO. The Qantas Board is listed here, with their backgrounds


Only Doug Parker and Antony Tyler have airline industry experience#. Personally, I think this balance is OK - the other directors bring a range of experience; finance, marketing, senior public service, law etc. They all hold other roles and I think only Brenner might be described as a bit too busy with roles at other large corporations.

Then there is the Chair, Richard Goyder. Has quite a bit on his plate and there are definitely questions as to whether he gave Joyce too much rope and/or was 'captured' by him. I reckon shareholders will be wanting him to 'move on early' after a decent interval of time and after Hudson settles in.

# Also Maxine Brenner - Federal Airports Corp, at Board level
 
This is a beauty from The Shovel Hi Alan, Here's How to Claim Your Bonus — The Shovel

Funny because it’s true.


Alan-Joyce-bonus.png
 
RooFlyer said:
Some board operate with little or no 'industry' experience on them, outside the CEO. The Qantas Board is listed here, with their backgrounds


Only Doug Parker and Antony Tyler have airline industry experience#. Personally, I think this balance is OK - the other directors bring a range of experience; finance, marketing, senior public service, law etc. They all hold other roles and I think only Brenner might be described as a bit too busy with roles at other large corporations.
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Well I suppose the question here we need to ask is to consider whether the stakeholders were well served.

Were investors well served by this executive committee? Did someone who invested in Qantas say in 2013 see good returns? The QF stock was trading at $1.32 around this time in 2013, now it is trading at 5.64 so has quadrupled in value, which is a good sign particularly given QF and the airline industry in general has had a hell of a time the past couple of years. On the other hand, I don't see QF paying out dividends so a value investor would have to take that into account. Certainly beating inflation which is what you look for as an investor.

What about customers? I think in this regard many would argue that customers were not well served. Yes you can point to the sorry notes QF keeps sending us along with the occasional nicety like the QF Flounge. And maybe if we talk to customers who had a smooth experience travelling Qantas, no cancellations, no mis-connects, no lost bags, then yeah they aren't a bad airline. But for those of us who do travel regularly and encounter these problems, I would argue the customer is not very well served. What is missing IMHO is a role specifically attacking the issue of the customer. Now yes you can point to the Chief Customer Officer, but reading his bio he seems like a consultant with a background in ICT. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind him fixing my network, but actually putting his finger on the pulse of the customer, I'm not so sure about.
RooFlyer said:
Then there is the Chair, Richard Goyder. Has quite a bit on his plate and there are definitely questions as to whether he gave Joyce too much rope and/or was 'captured' by him. I reckon shareholders will be wanting him to 'move on early' after a decent interval of time and after Hudson settles in.
Click to expand...
That Dick Goyder is on many boards in and of itself isn't the concern I see. The concern I have is whether he can pursue the duties of being the Chair given the responsibilities attached. One would hope that someone with experience in an area like aviation or logistics would be ideal for such a role. You need to be in a position where you feel comfortable saying no and challenging the executive.
 
RooFlyer said:
Very interesting issue. Its been written by a number of commentators that Alan Joyce 'captured' his Board - they they were in his thrall and did basically wave a rubber stamp around. You can see how this might happen, by Joyce's public appearances over the years; only very recently has the reality been separated from his spin and oily words. Directors are largely confined to the Board papers they are presented with, and the agenda of a meeting. They can caucus separately of course, but the Chair would be involved pretty soon in any of that (see below).

Some board operate with little or no 'industry' experience on them, outside the CEO. The Qantas Board is listed here, with their backgrounds


Only Doug Parker and Antony Tyler have airline industry experience#. Personally, I think this balance is OK - the other directors bring a range of experience; finance, marketing, senior public service, law etc. They all hold other roles and I think only Brenner might be described as a bit too busy with roles at other large corporations.

Then there is the Chair, Richard Goyder. Has quite a bit on his plate and there are definitely questions as to whether he gave Joyce too much rope and/or was 'captured' by him. I reckon shareholders will be wanting him to 'move on early' after a decent interval of time and after Hudson settles in.

# Also Maxine Brenner - Federal Airports Corp, at Board level
Click to expand...
In one of Joe Aston's articles he tells of the time that AJ accompanied by Richard Goyder came to see his editor to stop him criticising QF along with AJ. But they also said that Joe should put a disclaimer on all his articles that he had previously worked at Qantas. It sounded like AJ had his Chairman where he wanted him.
 
kangarooflyer88 said:
Did someone who invested in Qantas say in 2013 see good returns? The QF stock was trading at $1.32 around this time in 2013, now it is trading at 5.64 so has quadrupled in value, which is a good sign particularly given QF and the airline industry in general has had a hell of a time the past couple of years. On the other hand, I don't see QF paying out dividends so a value investor would have to take that into account. Certainly beating inflation which is what you look for as an investor.
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You really need to look at the 'total return' of the Qantas investment over a certain period - capital gains as well as dividends, capital returns etc. I haven't found such for Qantas, in spite of looking (I don't have a broker any more, other than CommSec :) ). You'd compare to other airlines only if you were a mad-keen airline investor, and therefore determined to lose your shirt.

Basically, an 'investor' just wants to make money, but how much and how quickly will be heavily influenced by their risk appetite. I used to be a mining junior investor - potential huge capital returns, no dividends, but very risky. Now I'm a BHP, Rio and bank guy for my private holdings. Thank-you to all you mortgage holders and credit card holders, ker-ching year-in, year-out. I would never directly invest in an airline, but super funds of course do.

I have no idea what the targets of an airline investor - super fund or private - would be. I do know that Joyce/Qantas made a hellava lot of hay while the sun shone in the past 18 months. The shareholders got something (a couple of buy-backs; nicely tax-effective) but the chickens are about to descend on Vanessa Hudson (and so shareholders) in unpleasant numbers - the ACCC fine issue; no longer able to keep the customer's credits; financing the new fleet; customer resistance ...

1693918337874.png
 
It’’s really all up to the shareholders as to who is voted in/out. The flying public have rather short memories, or probably don’t care less, anyway
 
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Will Goyder survive as Board Chairman?
Will AJ get his final bonus stopped at the AGM?
Joe Aston‘s article this morning in the AFR had Mrscove chuckling.
 
Reading about Qantas on the internet I came across a document
"Board Charter ". A guide to assist the Board by suggesting many ethical,legal and moral reasons for their decision making. A well
written and perhaps valuable document apart from a section that
states: " It is not an all inclusive document and should be read as a broad expression of principles "
To me the interpritation is here is a guide of mainly ethical principles that you may or may not follow making the whole document irrelevant.
 
And I guess the next question is how long Hudson will last. Pretty obviously now, but if she’s more of the same, then I suspect not long. And, whilst AJ was pretty good at removing any execs who showed any actual competence (and so would be even a slight threat), I‘d hope that she was smart enough to be different to him, and hid it. But, the entire credits fiasco is straight out of her department, so I have serious doubts.
 
Wow. Everyone should hear what Richard de Crespigny has to say on the situation. Not a journo, not a politician; we know his history. I find it incredible that there are some who defend this airline to the end. Hopefully now we will see some staff-and- customer-focussed recovery. I found this via a link on another thread.

omny.fm

Former Qantas captain blasts 'unimaginable' situation at airline - 3AW Breakfast with Ross and Russel

Alan Joyce yesterday announced he'd step down immediately, and there are calls for chairman Richard Goyder to resign and for Mr Joyce to be stripped of his bonuses.
omny.fm omny.fm
 
RooFlyer said:
Wow. Everyone should hear what Richard de Crespigny has to say on the situation. Not a journo, not a politician; we know his history. I find it incredible that there are some who defend this airline to the end. Hopefully now we will see some staff-and- customer-focussed recovery. I found this via a link on another thread.

omny.fm

Former Qantas captain blasts 'unimaginable' situation at airline - 3AW Breakfast with Ross and Russel

Alan Joyce yesterday announced he'd step down immediately, and there are calls for chairman Richard Goyder to resign and for Mr Joyce to be stripped of his bonuses.
omny.fm omny.fm
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In my recent 'incident', I fully trusted the operational crew to get things sorted. I didn't like the two interlopers, and hope they aren't indicative of the new Qantas. It is the management, those not directly involved with flying, that need a shakeup. And de Crespigny won't be the only pilot making comment. Kind of related, this is also the experience of cruise lines. The back end are dreadful, the actual operational teams are excellent.
 
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